Carbon-free power generation is becoming more attractive. Countries desperate to cut carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and meet climate goals also face shortages of traditional fossil fuels. The answer to this contradictory situation is long-term operation of nuclear reactors, which exceeds expectations.
A nuclear power plant operated by EDF (Electricity de France) undergoing maintenance and inspection for age-related damage
Photographer: Charly Triballeau/AFP
How long will nuclear reactors continue to operate? Many nuclear reactors are set to continue operating well beyond the typical 40-year service life. There is also a move to explore the operation of some nuclear reactors for up to 80 years. Research has even begun to see if it is possible to continue generating electricity for 100 years.
Source: Bloomberg
By 2030, two-thirds of the world’s currently operating nuclear reactors will be operating longer than they were designed or licensed.
“It wasn’t expected to last this long. You wouldn’t want to live next to a 100-year-old reactor,” said Chris Gadomski, chief nuclear analyst at Blueberg NEF. To tell. The average American lifespan is 77 years, but some nuclear reactors live longer.
Risk assessment
A few years ago, it would have been unthinkable to generate electricity from a reactor built a century ago. But the United States and the European Union have pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% by 2030. More than 70 countries have set targets for “net-zero” carbon emissions. Under these circumstances, pressure is increasing on countries and regions to find concrete measures to achieve the goals as soon as possible. With the world facing uncontrollable climate change and natural disasters, the risk assessment of CO2-free electropower generation has become an urgent issue.
The UK currently generates about 15% of its electricity from nuclear power, but it hopes to increase this to 25% by 2050. The United States is spending $6 billion in nuclear subsidies to keep aging reactors alive.
Source: Bloomberg
France plans to build a new nuclear power plant. Belgium, Finland, Slovakia, etc. are trying to extend the life of existing nuclear power plants.Germany continues to use nuclear reactors that were scheduled to shut down in 2022, and even Japan, which caused the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011,Extension of the operating period of nuclear power plantsmoving towards
Over the past few decades, criticism and opposition to nuclear power have been strong, especially in Europe and the United States, and many reactors have been forced to shut down. Investment from the industry is also dwindling, and construction of new nuclear power plants is decreasing. Even if construction starts now, large-scale nuclear power plants often take 10 years or more to build, and will not contribute to meeting carbon emissions reduction targets by 2030. In other words, the revival of nuclear power is impossible without aging nuclear reactors.
The biggest risks associated with prolonged operation are obvious. If aging nuclear power plants are not properly maintained and repaired, the risk of accidents increases. In all fairness, very few nuclear reactor accidents have entered commercial operation in the decade since the end of World War II. However, even if the probability is extremely low, once a nuclear accident occurs, it can be catastrophic.
Source: Bloomberg
The 1986 Chernobyl nuclear accident directly killed dozens and exposed millions to radiation that can cause cancer. An area three times the size of New York City will be polluted and uninhabitable for centuries. Twenty-five years later, more than 100,000 people were forced to evacuate due to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident. Reconstruction will take a long time and a huge amount of money.
fight against global warming
Prolonging reactor operation is uncharted territory. That also means that nuclear power, whose safety has been hotly debated, is even more risky.
There are also risks associated with facilities that process waste from nuclear reactors. Nearly 70 years after the world’s first nuclear reactor went live, many countries have yet to build a final repository for waste that will remain dangerously radioactive for thousands of years.
All of this explains why nuclear power has been steadily declining until recently. In the mid-1990s, about 18% of the world’s electricity was generated from nuclear power, now it’s about 10%.
Source: Bloomberg
The war that Russia started in Ukraine in 2022 is protracted, and its consequences are also noticeable. Germany, which has been in the heat of debate over nuclear energy, has been pushed into a more difficult situation by limited supplies of natural gas from Russia.
Wind, solar and hydropower are tricky, as seen in last summer’s blackouts in California and soaring energy prices in Europe. Unlike renewable energy, one of the usefulness of nuclear power is that it can continue to generate power 24 hours a day, even at night, regardless of the weather.
Many experts believe that reaching the net-zero target by 2050 is nearly impossible without more nuclear power. Low-carbon power sources accounted for about 40% of the world’s electricity supply in 2021, but that share is only about 4 percentage points higher than 20 years ago. Renewable energy has spread, but nuclear power has declined, and some have been replaced by gas plants, which have increased carbon emissions.
The director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Grossi has called nuclear reactors that can withstand long-term operation “the unsung heroes of the fight against global warming.”
Original title:Nuclear Power Plants Are Pushed to the Limit as Demand Surges(excerpt)
